Resistance is NOT futile

By Peter Ould, on January 29th, 2008

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New Hope Outreach with some thoughts that will help some readers of this blog. Feel free to contact me via the "Contact Peter" page if I can help you with anything raised below.

The “Borg[1]” cube spacecraft approaches the unsuspecting and fearful starship announcing ‘Resistance is futile’ and with that announcement it proceeds to capture and assimilates the starship and its crew. Thus the crew became part of the “Borg” through various weapons that penetrated the ship’s defenses. This is of course the science fiction world of Star Trek and the “Borg” is a collective mix of the biological and the cybernetic fused together in order to make a more perfect being, at the cost of individual freedoms. The Borg’s announcement is wrong for resistance is not futile. We may not battle the science fiction “Borg” but each of us possibly face an enemy that is real and just as desiring to assimilate us if it is allowed. I see our “Borg” as anything that threatens to weaken or hinder our God given identity.

There are times when resistance seems long and victory seems far away. I remember struggling year after year with transgendered desires. At times I would almost hear ‘Resistance is futile, you will never be free of this’. During those dark days I would go through depression, fear, and yes, pleasure and a seemingly endless drive to yield and to be assimilated. I began to wonder if the statement ‘ Resistance is futile is true’, however another voice seemed to grow and not stop playing also ‘Resistance is not futile’. I began to realize that it was the Lord who was uttering this second voice. At first I listened to the first voice and was giving in over and over to the transgendered desires and one of the weapons that cut through my defenses was a hair fetish (not all people facing transgendered issues also battle fetish issues).

For from as far back as I could remember I found women in hair – rollers enticing to say the least. In Star Trek, the “Borg” attack can be relentless and effective defenses hard to set up and yet victory happened in Star Trek through creative strategies and teamwork. Yes I was facing a civil war inside of me. You see the first voice was saying “‘You should be a girl’, and you know that you want to give in to it. Look at your thoughts and your actions”. The second voice was saying ‘I made you a male and I love you and I am able to restore and heal you’.

The “Borg” always looks for the weakest points in the targets defenses and for me it was a hair fetish. This hair fetish issue has always been a temptation, one of the deadliest weapons against me, hard to resist and not easy to admit even to this day, full of shame… For me I had to face the reality that as I gravitated towards women’s’ hairstyles and had sexualized them over the years. I have envied women and put men down. I have idolized certain childhood reactions in my life being surrounded by and gravitated toward women and out of this root system a hair fetish very innocently took root. The reality is that I was not an innocent bystander while external forces worked on me in my life. I actively pursued my secret desires. This little fetish grew and my “Borg” used it to reinforce a transgendered desire, which also grew over the years until God showed up. If God hadn’t shown up, I wouldn’t have defenses sufficient to resist.

One might ask the question: What harm is a little fetish in one’s life? Having a fetish issue in your life reinforces a life of secrecy and shame as you don’t want to advertise it and it grows in secret. My fetish was a place in my mind of learned comfort and it became a place to retreat to, but it definitely is not healthy. A fetish is not a shortcut to happiness and it always requires more … Years ago I found a new avenue to explore my fetish: the Internet. I found websites that just showed women with their hair in rollers and these sites had hundred of pictures… I realized that I was not alone in this fetish. The pull of the Net is a reality we all need to face and if needed, do set up an accountability source that includes some form of Internet watch of what sites you go to. Ultimately reality calls us not to run or hide in a fantasy or fetish world for the Lord has something better for us. In Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.
What is your “Borg” that threatens to overwhelm you and what weapons system do you find hard to resist? So how can we go from

‘Resistance is futile to believing and living that resistance is not futile? I believe that it begins by admitting that we have a problem and we keep secrets. John Howard Prin in his book ‘ Secret Keeping – Overcoming Hidden Habits and Addictions,’ believes that addictions are basically lies because it makes us feel that something outside can fix what is missing inside of me. [2]

In Proverbs 27:7 ‘He who is full loathes honey but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet’. In this scripture there is an illustration as to why fetish issues take hold as well as other issues, and that is primarily due to a past emptiness i.e. hunger that we try to fill. The more we attempt to fill our hunger outside of God’s best and I believe we will find God’s best in the Bible, the more we drift away. Thus, I believe that by first admitting that we have a problem we will be well on the road to living and believing that resistance is not futile. It is imperative that we share our struggles with other trusted people who will encourage and hold us up. This will also include building a support team of various people from different walks of life. We need to face our weaknesses and sins and seek the Lord in prayer for healing of damages done through i.e. abuse, destructive thought patterns, emotional trauma and other issues that may arise. We need not walk alone and we need to dismantle our secret places where we enjoy our fetishes and live outside of it, however this will take time.

Unraveling the distorted thinking, fetish thoughts and habits is not easy and we need to be prepared for attacks by the “Borg”. Through twelve step programs, Living Water programs, one on one counseling and time in the Bible we will begin to find the healing that we need and the tools to dismantle our secret side. It is true that a fetish is so enticing, for it is something seemingly perfect in our own mind, it seems like is always there, comforting and soothing but ultimately it is futile. The danger is to ignore a fetish, thus we must set up defenses when we are attacked and when we fall, for it is so easy to give in to it, so easy to believe that resistance might be futile but ultimately it is not God’s best for us. I found worship music helpful as it encouraged me to keep going.
In the final analysis as the Lord becomes our Source and Strength we can become living proof that resistance is not futile. Our goal is not to just endure but to replace and overcome the Borg’s plans and live in freedom through the strength of the Lord. This may not happen over night and one may be tempted to believe that resistance is futile but don’t give in to that for in God’s strength and being surrounding by people who care you will find in the end resistance is not futile.

Blessings
Rev. Danny Blackwell

P. S. I decided to write about overcoming fetishes because I found nothing on the topic also this has been a reality in my life.

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